Wednesday, March 15, 2006

Robin Arkley, a foreclosure magnate from Eureka California, just gave $250,000 to support Prop 75. Arkley controls more than 100 privately owned corporations and partnerships with billions in assets and earning hundreds of millions of dollars.

Much of Arkley’s fortune was made off the misfortune and misery of others, either through his collection agency or through acquiring “distressed mortgages? and then foreclosing on the owners, often through aggressive legal tactics.

While Mr. Arkley has no trouble taking the homes of working families, he has repeatedly failed to cover his fair share of taxes. In the past several years, Arkley, his wife, and his businesses have racked up tens of thousands of dollars of liens, owing everyone from local cities on up to the IRS. Arkley has also been the subject of dozens of lawsuits, including labor and civil rights violations.

Arkley’s behavior is legendary among Eureka residents. He once threatened to withhold funding for a local ballet company because his daughter was not selected for a lead role in the Nutcracker. He also demanded that the entire the city’s planning department be fired they resisted his pro-development approach. After being criticized for his behavior, Arkley said, "If you're me, do you really care what the city thinks?"

Donor historyThe Orange County Register reports that Arkley made contributions of $1.4 million to state and federal committees from 2003-2004, making him the 21st largest political contributor in California.

In 2004, Arkley created and gave $515,500 to You're Fired! Inc., a 527 group that aired several anti-Daschle ads parodying Donald Trump’s "The Apprentice." The effort earned him a personal thank you call from Karl Rove.)

In one letter sent this week to the county counsel and the entire Board of Supervisors, Arkley asks them to "do everything in your power" to make sure the proposed ordinance never becomes law.

"Should the ordinance pass, one can be sure that its legality will be challenged promptly," Arkley wrote. "That, of course, will require the county to spend money, at least in trial court and perhaps on appeal as well -- in a futile attempt to sustain it."

"That is not how the county needs to spend its precious money," he adds later.

Here we see Rob Arkley Jr. being a bully, as usual, threatening to sue Humboldt County, forcing them to waste taxpayers' money if he doesn't get his way.

"Rob is very, very bright and he gets angry when people use him and misunderstand him," she said. "He has a temper, but so do a lot of very successful people, and it comes out less and less. I don't blame him for getting mad. This guy Salzman used Rob and me in the final days of the campaign as the boogie man and I don't blame Rob for popping off.

Up until a few weeks ago, the Friends of the Dunes was working with the harbor district to purchase the property [the Dog Ranch on the Samoa Peninsula], with financing from the Coastal Conservancy, so that it could be preserved. But the group lost out when Arkley came in.

"They got in second place!" Arkley said, making no effort to conceal his glee. "And it'll never, ever, ever, ever, ever be sold to them."

Arkley has no specific plans for the parcel, which also includes a house, he said, but he made it clear the land would be fenced off and not open to the public.

Carol Vander Meer, a board member with Friends of the Dunes, said her group was disappointed that their deal fell through.

"We were just shocked, and actually we had suspected it might have been Arkley," she said. "We felt that we were on a path, but then we don't have quick access to funds, like Arkley perhaps does, so that puts us at a disadvantage."

"We're going to take the county back, and we're going to take it back from the hippies."

Arcata Eye article, March 24, 2003: Arkley added that animosity against PL has been tolerated, but now, people "are just sick and tired of it." He portrayed ongoing direct action forest protests as a particularly odious phenomenon, comparing the persistence of tree-sitters to "dogshit on a waffle-sole shoe."

I just moved to Arcata and love it's Liberalism... I think it is very sad to see this right wing ...hole come in here and think he can tell others how their home should be. He won't tell me and I'll do all I can to stop him from telling and hurting others.

I second that thought from the comment at 11:19. There have been many people that have been negitively affected by the actions of Rob Arkley and should have a place to express their feelings and experiences. People need to be able to tell the real stories and not ones that are spun and edited to hide what is really going on.

Yeah, those are bad people. Let's see. St Bernards computer lab, $100,000. Eureka High School Gym and Pool: $300,000. Willow Creek- street improvements $100,000. Baton Rouge- paid mortgages of employees until they could get on their feet after Hurricane Katrina- unknown figures, Eureka Boardwalk- was that 3 million $?, zoo- new buildings and other improvements, unknown amount, the dance company- a new building, on and on. Just noticed they also paid the way for any Coast Guard member who wanted to attend the Coast Guard Ball, numerous sponsorships for charity events, big money to Multiple Sclerosis research, big money to various colleges, not to mention great benefits for employees including matching retirement funds and college costs paid for employee and their children. yep, bad people. People with a few flaws, but it seems worth like having that sort of money might come with some baggage an personality quirks.

Without knowing Rob Arkley personally I cannot pass judgment on him, but I will say that as a citizen of Eureka I do appreciate all of his contributions to our beautiful community here. Although I am a registered Democrat my party affiliation does not keep me from supporting his local projects, so the critics of Rob Arkley should really weigh all the good things he has done for Eureka and quite crying.

i would like to leave the balloon track as wild as possible, but something should go there if it doesn't explode on a quiet area. but I respect Arkley because he shares and wants to help. I am a hippie and feel hippies have help save something special here, but people need to work with jobs that are environmentally safe. Hopefully Arkley wants to keep it open in Humboldt. No, I don't want to be a bedroom community for San Francisco, but Arkley must not want that either, or he would help somewhere else. I am poor, but I am also vocal about what is mine and what I can and cannot do, and when and how and why. Of course he had to speak up for himself. I am who and what I am and I want Humboldt hippie and environment friendly, but I appreciate that a rich man opens his pocket instead of collecting the world and everything in it

I would say that the measure of a person is most apparent when they are not being observed. I was walking into the Eureka Co-Op for a snack when I observed Rob Arkley walking out. A scruffy looking teenager approached Rob and asked him a question. As I was coming out, I saw that Rob had pulled his car over and was jump-starting the kid's mother's car. Politics aside, not many people would stop to talk to a punk kid, fewer still would actually take their time to help someone who needed it. Make of it what you will.

I know Rob Arkley personally and I once thought he was a good man. Whether or not you agree with his politics, he has done a lot of good things with his power and wealth and he has been known to treat people well. But those are his actions when times are good. When times are bad, he is volatile and mean spirited and spiteful. He doesn't take responsibility for his own actions and aims the blame on others. He doesn't respect the fact that his employees have entrusted him with their careers, reputations and livelihoods and he spends them carelessly. He doesn't seem to realize that he could not be a millionaire without all of the work of the people that he employs. Giving them a fat bonus check or other fancy perks only amounts to a bribe when they are not treated with respect in the end.

I first heard this name when trying to determine just who owned the 80 portion of my 80/20 mortgage. I am far, far away from the Pacific Ocean here in the Northwestern corner of Connecticut, but I am being destroyed by the long and greedy arm of Robin P. Arkley III. He (S.N. Svcng.) is taking my teeny, tiny home in foreclosure despite the purchase offer on the table put forth by a family member. The offer is very fair and still leaves them a little profit margin (as they are scooping up the home and leaving the 20% holder out of luck). After this evening of reading I better understand the behaviour of S.N. employees... they must be models of Arkley's temperment... Can anyone help me?

Rob Arkley is not a bad person as you portray. He employs hundreds of people here in Eureka with good wages and great benefits and he supports many local businesses. He constantly tries to improve Eureka and honestly who else is stepping forward to help the community of Eureka-no one. The "balloon tract" is a waste land that no one would even want, it's amazing that he is willing to come in and spend the insane amounts of money to clean it and build on it and also restore 11 acres of wetlands. You may not like that he isn‘t “liberal“ but he is the only person I see stepping up in Eureka-I don‘t see anyone else stepping forward to move this community forward. He's a Eureka citizen who actually cares about Eureka and the people who live here. He should be given a medal of honor and a key to the city for all he has done-a lot of people would have walked away from all the hateful people smearing his and his families name.

Thank you Rob Arkley for helping improve our quality of life here in Humboldt County.

HUGE DONATORMr. Arkley, Do you know that there isa much higher person than yourself and that one day everything will come back to you the way you have been with others! Your son has No Respect for other people and neither do you. It is very sad in American the land of pleanty and the Free that people like you are portrayed as charity givers all the while destrying families and lives.. Do you have any conscious Mr. Arkley? How sad for you and your family... You will not live to be a happy old gentleman. Anonomous

arkley took our home 2 years ago.he and his company SN Serving took it from us,i knew it was all wrong at the time ,but could not afford to fight him any longer, i have since got proof.what goes around comes around.i do not envy him at all . all the lies the raw deals and the famlies and lives he has ruined staling homes just to keep himself happy . hope bank of americia puts him in his place cheryl dicob NEW YOK